ckidder331

So I know on United if you book an Economy flight you can usually buy up to a first class ticket. depends on loads and prices but you can usually do it on most flights

Can I do that on an AA ticket? If my company buys a coach ticket for me for a domestic flight, can I pay up myself to get to a first class seat in advance?

thanks - newbie to AA

Dave Noble

conceptually, yes

Are you booking directly with AA or via an agent
also
Are you working for a large corporation with negotiated fares?

AA will allow rebooing into a higher class of service on normal published fares without a change fee

MarkedMan

Done it on a domestic flight. This was on US stock, booked with corp travel agents, on a negotiated fare. There's a lot the EXP desk can do. I was pretty impressed, I have to say, though it took them a while to sort out the actual fare.

ckidder331

I work for a large corporate that does have negotiated fares on some routes and some airlines.

I would be booking thru our corporate travel dept. I know on United I've been able to do it myself online once the reservation shows up. They tickets are whatever fare class is available at the point I bought the ticket.

lovetheduns

I book my own travel (pretty much travel weekly from east coast to west) and I basically book in Choice Plus which will usually give me an option before purchasing the fare to spend a few hundred dollars to upgrade to first. I then take a screenshot of the coach fare and my upgrade fare and submit for expenses where the upgrade was paid by myself.

ijgordon

If the coach ticket was issued by a travel agent, it's unlikely that AA will touch it prior to departure. Maybe work with your corporate TA and T&E dept to see if you can purchase F and pay for the difference (which the TA can document) out of pocket.

DeepUnderground

Yes you can, can take a while for them to figure out the fare sometimes. Just did it yesterday with travel department booked fare.

AAExpDFW

I book with a TA all the time. AA has no problem making changes to my TA ticket. Everything from eVIPs to full out changes.

mre5765

Can they do it with code share? AA ticket stock but some non AA OW metal?

jAAck

I do this often, especially on routings with tough upgrades or when the fare difference to P is comparable to the cost of stickers. I book through my corporate travel and once the ticket is issued, I call the AA Meetings Desk (also their corporate desk). They compute the upfare (often cheaper than what I've priced online if the routing has an applicable P or A fare for my corporate contract), and I charge the difference to my personal card. No change fee if you keep the same flights, but I generally do have to pay the $25 ticketing fee. It would be like Christmas if someday the website would allow these changes online.

More upside, same-day changes are usually easy online with P fares. Downside of course is any flight disruptions, when the AA folks love to tell you you've actually purchased a coach fare. But that's another topic...

jaytcsd

Just sent this same suggestion to AA via the web.
I'm a contractor for the VA so my expenses are subject to audit.

I paid the difference after buying a coach ticket and got AA to do "a onetime gesture of goodwill" (too bad they have a corporate limit on goodwill) and waive the fees.

I don't have a corporate travel office and always book on aa.com.

Seems like the only thing consistent with AA is inconsistency.

@ lovetheduns - Do you have to pay a change fee if you make a change after getting choice + and then upgrading? Seems like a grey area.

hiima

It's United that doesn't want to touch ta tickets.

JDiver

Can you submit the original receipt printed from aa.com or original e-ticket?

jaytcsd

I print a pdf of the fare quote page just before I put the res on hold. So far I have not been asked to show expenses, I hope that will suffice.

Exec_Plat

What, do they record this in your Permanent Record or something??



Most fare rules include language that says a reticketing that is not due to a change of: date, flight or routing, does not have a fee. So changing cabin should be waived.